Miranda: Dems need to support minorities upstate

Monica Arias Miranda, who failed to win the Democratic nomination in the 46th State Senate District, says the “Democrat party” (for some reason she uses the Republican coinage instead of ‘Democratic”) should refrain from claiming racism in the Senate leadership fight until it’s ready to support minority candidates outside of New York City.

Candidates like, y’know, Monica Arias Miranda — who came in a distant third to Cecilia Tkaczyk and Tom Dolan on primary night. From her statement:

It is insulting to continue to see the race card being drawn again by the Democrat party, as it continues to dismiss minorities as potential candidates in races outside of New York City. The party that claims to work with us [minorities] to eliminate lack in diversity chooses to only talk about this issue when it is convenient for them, during election year and when minority count will yield a monetary outcomes. As minorities we are reduced to data: votes and statistics.

Arias Miranda raised eyebrows with a bizarre primary-eve press conference, which she convened in an anonymous email release. She discussed sexist behavior she was allegedly subjected to when she worked in the Assembly. “Any hope I had at public office is probably dead now,” she said at that gathering.

Her statement continues:

The Black and Latino population continues to grow across NYS, yet, when the Democrat Party talks about lack of diversity in the legislature and leadership positions, they fail to mention their lack of support for minority candidates. Hispanics in NY account for 17.6% or 3.4 million from the 19.4 million total, a 19.2% increase since 2000 (from 2.9 million to 3.4 million). The non-Latino population grew only slightly by 2.1% from 19.0 million to 19.4 million during the same time period. Upstate NY saw substantial Latino population increase in the cities of Kingston, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Rochester, Buffalo and Syracuse. How many minority candidates has the Democrat Party supported in these areas? For example, the City of Amsterdam has a Latino population of approximately 30% yet the Democrats continue to fail to support a minority candidate in that City, you will not find a single Latino serving the constituents in that City.